Harold Pinter's The Homecoming - "Glass of Water"

Excerpt from Peter Hall's 1973 film of Pinters play. Starring Ian Holm, Paul Rogers and Vivien Merchant.

[@MaryHarper]

one of the best most shockin theatre lines for me (delivered perfectly here|) is "if you take that glass, I'll take you" no one's better than pinter

[@vinm300]

One still wonders - what does it mean ?

[@jasonhurd4379]

Vivien Merchant was married to Pinter for several years. If anyone knew how to deliver his lines perfectly, it was she.

[@wgaule]

I could watch this little scene over and over and never get bored.

[@witchywoman2008]

Ian Holm is wonderful in this play. His performance is breathtaking.

[@jimmindway3978]

Brilliant. Pinter deserves all the accolades he received. Never tire of watching' The Homecoming'. Also great to listen to the MP3 version. RIP Harold.

[@CultureJudge]

For God's sake someone upload the whole movie. This cast is INCREDIBLE. Holm is just stunning.

[@theonlyantony]

Thank’s, Ian. I admired your purity

[@nickstone1587]

Untroubled by conscience or delusions of morality

[@LisaNova]

Ian Holm is so great. - Lisa

[@dimwitpinkbigbiblob]

@bakerj02 Sam also tries to get power.... his role in the play is the secret bearer, he knows about jessie and mac and perhaps, when he collapses in the end of the play just shows how makes a final attempt to gain power by blurting out the secret he knows, sees no one's paying heed and collapses...

[@michaeligoe3935]

Vivien Merchant is sensational in this.

[@fAatuPfenG]

I did this drama course in my University last year and I was Lenny. I could actually feel that sense of absurdity in this scene when I was doing it. Spectacular. Sir Ian Holm is just amazing.

[@notboring0]

My mom would pick me up early from High School to go to screenings of The American Film Theater series. This was the best. Their version of The Iceman Cometh was also excellent, starring Lee Marvin.

[@michaelcrowe]

This is probably the best film I've seen too. Thanks for posting!

[@SunrizeRay]

Cool, We're actually doing this exact extract in our theatre studies class. It'll definitely be of some use. Thanks for posting!

[@KenshiRyden]

I'm sitting my Advanced Higher English exam tomorrow and I'm just scanning around for any snippets of the Homecoming I can find for added understanding (and to test my knowledge). I have to say, we watched this film in class, and it's an excellent rendition of the brilliant play. Paul Rogers as Max couldn't be more perfect, and it gets the biting, hostile tone of the drama perfectly. Possibly my favourite play... I'm gonna have to think about that one.

[@palendromebob]

RIP Ian; huge talent.

[@lemontelevision]

Ian Holm. From this to The Fifth Element. Just as good 40 years later.

[@almadora]

more, ohhh more... he's gorgeous!!

[@jmichaelbaran9724]

Vivian Merchant.....Harold Pinter's wife...and one of the most underrated...and unused...actresses in modern acting history...

[@danjameson1572]

Paul Rogers as the Father. Fantastic.

[@anthonyblend694]

"Ow about me takin' the glass without you takin' me?"

[@VoxJoxx]

I have never watched this before but i hope i have read this right, that Pinter is cleverly portraying the typical masculine icon that symbolizes power consumed by self fed lies but he is illustrating through the woman how that corrupt power is just an illusion, it is like the man, week and small but still trying to manipulate the woman, she recognizes this and over powers him reversing the roles, effectively stripping away the iron veil.

[@tomshea8382]

She's not Teddy's wife, but sometimes I wonder if any of the men are actually related at all. Is this just a house full of wierdos? "Jessie" was Scots slang for a gay man, so sometimes I wonder if anything has ANY basis in reality in the play.

[@Wordman67]

Can you please post more clips from "The Homecoming"? There are so many great scenes, between Max and Teddy, between Max and Sam, and many others. It's one of the greatest plays ever written, in my humble opinion, and this film is a superb rendition of it.

[@goodman9500]

im doing the play off this and i am playing lenny - cant wait

[@isitme88]

@SweeneyTodd109 It's available on Amazon for about thirteen quid.

[@mogwai4000]

But... Lenny's a nutter! *Pause* Thanks for this video... I'm revising the play for my English exam tomorrow and... hell... it sure beats reading it... *Pause* The infamous Pinter pause strikes.

[@dandiacal]

@vivienmerchant Is this THE Vivian Merchant, the great actress? It is an honor to have you on youtube. That is all I have to say.

[@charlischmarly323]

cant wait for kristin school year 13 productiooonn :D yuuss!!

[@randomdave30]

Freud defined the family as 'a circle of love and hate' and The Homecoming epitomises this on a conscious and subconscious level.

[@goback3spaces]

This scene reads better than it plays. In this clip, at least.

[@KurtMcGowan]

Awkward and tension levels are so high in this scene!!! x

[@edmund184]

@Jeremyschoonhoven Well Sartre turned it down. Pinter should have refused in protest at the Peace Prize given to Kissinger, Arafat, FW De Clerk. The fact remains Nobel is no measure of greatness.

[@tomshea8382]

But this fucking play is. Take a fucking lane.

[@realshowman]

I'm learning this for my showreel. Any tips for playing Lenny? Thanks in advance

[@smakdoubt]

The Real Showman: Do you detect a certain incoherence in the central affirmations if Christian theism? ; ) Watch Ian Holm in Alien over and over again...his acting is beyond anyone I've ever seen and there are echoes of lenny in Ash... Also watch Lobster...it's all about the space and not so much what you put in it.

[@dandiacal]

@dandiacal I certainly knew about the difficult divorce from H. Pinter, but I hadn't known she died so long ago. Thanks for that bit of cultural literacy. Cheers

[@edmund184]

Nobody's answered my criticism about Pinter excepting the Nobel Prize.

[@PascallaTanna]

Where can I watch the whole movie?

[@ajs41]

www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vkk0a

[@DrJones20]

@@ajs41 Thanks!

[@BelatedCommiseration]

I think there is a bit of Pinter revisionism going...aboiut how great a dramatist the man really was and his real contribution. But most criticism of the man seems to stem from his politics and if it comes to his work critics who question it mostly make unfavourable comparisons to Beckett. Whilst the link between the two is obvious (as Becketts was to Joyce) Pinter definitely creates his own style in my opinion. I don't think anyone who has really read or seen the homecoming can doubt his skill.

[@JayXL14]

DANCE APP ANS: clear off a GLASS OF WATER (read the TITLE LOL)

[@moppettshow]

And then upload 'Nuts in May' too!

[@edmund184]

@holliesteelsucks No I was just being enigmatic. Introducing mispelt words to convey ambiguity and the hidden violence that lies behind language. I was just being Pinter-esque.

[@ajs41]

The whole film: www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vkk0a

[@IirimaJen]

@gleep111 You must not have read/seen any Sarah Kane.

[@DUDEbuttersDUDE]

Lol im doing this for my DRAMA GCSE and i play lennie. :)

[@Rosamorrable]

when she says "have a sip from my glass"... does it have a sexual connotation?

[@tommytimp]

Everything in this play is a sexual connotation. Yes. She's trying to turn Lenny's bravado back on him by emasculating him with a simple glass of water.

[@dcasey77]

Why? Because it's a different opinion from yours? At least I was polite and considerate of other views when I raised my point.

[@tedfaun2159]

There is an interesting minimalist style of acting used here, very dead pan, which leaves a lot of room to interpret pinters words but i dont feel its supposed to be as stylised as this. All though Pinter is meticulous with his words, pauses etc i dont feel it is to detract from the naturalistic style which i think it should be performed in. This is in the naturalistic genre but overly stylised as to detract from the believability of the actors. Instead of letting the words and pauses control what the actors can do and thus fall into this minimalist stylised naturilism, its the their job to work out exactly how to fit the words and pauses into a naturlistic believable performance of them. I dont think they quite managed this here. I want it to be more be more compelling... it shouldnt look odd. (in my opinion)

[@ajs41]

I know what you mean, but I still quite enjoy this particular interpretation. As you say, it's a very minimalist performance, almost Zen-like in some respects.

[@astat1]

Why do you think the old man might lie?

[@tomshea8382]

Because "lying" and "truth" don't really matter in the space of this play. Everything is a subconscious expression.

[@janwilkins9291]

Excuse me but TV id unpoliced but there is a reason for film certification. Do you really hear about a family of men agreeing to accept there son's/brother's wife as a pimped out concubine?? I only did this at Degree level- the right time to study i think!

[@tommytimp]

I don't think she's his wife at all. But every moment of this play is a sexual undertone, and the splintering and dysfunction of this family of men leads to the grotesquely logical conclusion that she decides to stay with "them" rather than "him" and it becomes almost Freudian, given the way they talk about their "dear Mother" who was probably also a whore.

[@KurtMcGowan]

@alexfuckinghiggins What kind of stuff do you like then?

[@edmund184]

@GogolBordelloLover Well, it would have made all his grand statements about power and hypocracy actually mean something.

[@tomshea8382]

Dude, I know I'm speaking from the future and we have jetpacks and shit, but you can't even spell "hypocrite" correctly from one post to the next, plus all your bullshit is about the fucking Nobel prize. he won the Tony for this. Not the Nobel.

[@deborahhughes6186]

Make me sweat

[@CultureJudge]

Then you need to reconsider your idea of 'right state of mind'.

[@edmund184]

@GogolBordelloLover Well you could watch a James Bond movie and get all the violence you need. But Bond movies are not High Art. Pinter got the Nobel Prize. Nobody's yet answered my point about Pinter accepting the Nobel Prize.

[@barnabycross]

you wanna wotch what your saying mate

[@dcasey77]

I remember seeing this film on Channel 5. I don't mean this to cause offence but I can not understand what is supposedly so great about this. This would be dismissed as jibberish if Pinter wasn't the author. At least in Osborne's plays people spoke the way real people do and didn't talk nonsense. I thought Pinter was highly over-rated.

[@tomshea8382]

If Pinter weren't the author, no one would have written it this way. Duh. What the fuck does "speaking the way real people do" have to do with good or bad theater?

[@gleep111]

Most disturbing play ever.

[@jishblaster]

@alexfuckinghiggins Why the hate brah?

[@edmund184]

@Jeremyschoonhoven He got the award then for politics not literature.

[@SiFiClark]

yeah this scene doesnt do justice to whats possible in this scene with inner emotion and play against

[@edmund184]

Maybe I'm missing the hidden meaning. Pinter was inflated. He accepted the Nobel Prize which had gone to Henry kissinger, FW De Clerk & Yasser Arafat- men in power who had abused human rights. He condemned the world cup taking place in a fascist dictatorship- Argentina as an example of how the international elite allows oppression to reign alongside respectable culture. So Nobel is another example: giving awards to artists and murderers. Why didn't Pinter refuse it in protest? What a hypocrit

[@tomshea8382]

Sir, this is a scene from one of his plays. The protest bullshit you want is around the corner, in the alley.

[@charliehenryrufus]

lenny - the man.

[@conewells]

Pinter was WAY ahead of his time with lines like "You bitch" (said to a guy) and "nomsayin'?" Lines you hear every day now by black guys.

[@lloydisthebest]

I can't honestly figure out how anyone in his right state of mind would like this. Eww...

[@zorki28]

Am I the only person who thinks Pinter is silly?

[@TimonofBath]

Yes and no.

[@ajs41]

I find his plays menacing.

[@manfromnocky]

It is known as "the theater of the absurd" amongst other things so no, you are not alone.

[@edmund184]

Well it may be inflated but then Pinter was inflated. what with his Nobel Prize and awards and endless revivals. I mean people think he's a great writer. This is intellectually nothing more than a nasty edition of Eastenders.

[@ColinBos1898]

"The human condition"? "Learning about life"? Christ, that sounds inflated.

[@janwilkins9291]

What!!! Are you telling the truth? This is an incredibly filthy film- think its very wrong for them to be doing it at GCSE!

[@tomshea8382]

Have you recovered yet?